Books: Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle >> Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
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"I heard her shut the door, and felt quite sure that
she had turned the key in the lock."
"The key!" ejaculated Phelps.
"Yes; I had given Miss Harrison instructions to lock
the door on the outside and take the key with her when
she went to bed. She carried out every one of my
injunctions to the letter, and certainly without her
cooperation you would not have that paper in you
coat-pocket. She departed then and the lights went
out, and I was left squatting in the
rhododendron-bush.
"The night was fine, but still it was a very weary
vigil. Of course it has the sort of excitement about
it that the sportsman feels when he lies beside the
water-course and waits for the big game. It was very
long, though--almost as long, Watson, as when you and
I waited in that deadly room when we looked into the
little problem of the Speckled Band. There was a
church-clock down at Woking which struck the quarters,
and I thought more than once that it had stopped. At
last however about two in the morning, I suddenly
heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushed back and
the creaking of a key. A moment later the servants'
door was opened, and Mr. Joseph Harrison stepped out
into the moonlight."
"Joseph!" ejaculated Phelps.
"He was bare-headed, but he had a black coat thrown
over his shoulder so that he could conceal his face in
an instant if there were any alarm. He walked on
tiptoe under the shadow of the wall, and when he
reached the window he worked a long-bladed knife
through the sash and pushed back the catch. Then he
flung open the window, and putting his knife through
the crack in the shutters, he thrust the bar up and
swung them open.
"From where I lay I had a perfect view of the inside
of the room and of every one of his movements. He lit
the two candles which stood upon the mantelpiece, and
then he proceeded to turn back the corner of the
carpet in the neighborhood of the door. Presently he
stopped and picked out a square piece of board, such
as is usually left to enable plumbers to get at the
joints of the gas-pipes. This one covered, as a
matter of fact, the T joint which gives off the pipe
which supplies the kitchen underneath. Out of this
hiding-place he drew that little cylinder of paper,
pushed down the board, rearranged the carpet, blew out
the candles, and walked straight into my arms as I
stood waiting for him outside the window.
"Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him
credit for, has Master Joseph. He flew at me with his
knife, and I had to grasp him twice, and got a cut
over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand of him.
He looked murder out of the only eye he could see with
when we had finished, but he listened to reason and
gave up the papers. Having got them I let my man go,
but I wired full particulars to Forbes this morning.
If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good.
But if, as I shrewdly suspect, he finds the nest empty
before he gets there, why, all the better for the
government. I fancy that Lord Holdhurst for one, and
Mr. Percy Phelps for another, would very much rather
that the affair never got as far as a police-court.
"My God!" gasped our client. "Do you tell me that
during these long ten weeks of agony the stolen papers
were within the very room with me all the time?"
"So it was."
"And Joseph! Joseph a villain and a thief!"
"Hum! I am afraid Joseph's character is a rather
deeper and more dangerous one than one might judge
from his appearance. From what I have heard from him
this morning, I gather that he has lost heavily in
dabbling with stocks, and that he is ready to do
anything on earth to better his fortunes. Being an
absolutely selfish man, when a chance presented itself
he did not allow either his sister's happiness or your
reputation to hold his hand."
Percy Phelps sank back in his chair. "My head
whirls," said he. "Your words have dazed me."
"The principal difficulty in your case," remarked
Holmes, in his didactic fashion, "lay in the fact of
there being too much evidence. What was vital was
overlaid and hidden by what was irrelevant. Of all
the facts which were presented to us we had to pick
just those which we deemed to be essential, and then
piece them together in their order, so as to
reconstruct this very remarkable chain of events. I
had already begun to suspect Joseph, from the fact
that you had intended to travel home with him that
night, and that therefore it was a likely enough thing
that he should call for you, knowing the Foreign
Office well, upon his way. When I heard that some one
had been so anxious to get into the bedroom, in which
no one but Joseph could have concealed anything--you
told us in your narrative how you had turned Joseph
out when you arrived with the doctor--my suspicions
all changed to certainties, especially as the attempt
was made on the first night upon which the nurse was
absent, showing that the intruder was well acquainted
with the ways of the house."
"How blind I have been!"
"The facts of the case, as far as I have worked them
out, are these: this Joseph Harrison entered the
office through the Charles Street door, and knowing
his way he walked straight into your room the instant
after you left it. Finding no one there he promptly
rang the bell, and at the instant that he did so his
eyes caught the paper upon the table. A glance showed
him that chance had put in his way a State document of
immense value, and in an instant he had thrust it into
his pocket and was gone. A few minutes elapsed, as
you remember, before the sleepy commissionnaire drew
your attention to the bell, and those were just enough
to give the thief time to make his escape.
"He made his way to Woking by the first train, and
having examined his booty and assured himself that it
really was of immense value, he had concealed it in
what he thought was a very safe place, with the
intention of taking it out again in a day or two, and
carrying it to the French embassy, or wherever he
thought that a long price was to be had. Then came
your sudden return. He, without a moment's warning,
was bundled out of his room, and from that time onward
there were always at least two of you there to prevent
him from regaining his treasure. The situation to him
must have been a maddening one. But at last he
thought he saw his chance. He tried to steal in, but
was baffled by your wakefulness. You remember that
you did not take your usual draught that night."
"I remember."
"I fancy that he had taken steps to make that draught
efficacious, and that he quite relied upon your being
unconscious. Of course, I understood that he would
repeat the attempt whenever it could be done with
safety. Your leaving the room gave him the chance he
wanted. I kept Miss Harrison in it all day so that he
might not anticipate us. Then, having given him the
idea that the coast was clear, I kept guard as I have
described. I already knew that the papers were
probably in the room, but I had no desire to rip up
all the planking and skirting in search of them. I
let him take them, therefore, from the hiding-place,
and so saved myself an infinity of trouble. Is there
any other point which I can make clear?"
"Why did he try the window on the first occasion," I
asked, "when he might have entered by the door?"
"In reaching the door he would have to pass seven
bedrooms. On the other hand, he could get out on to
the lawn with ease. Anything else?"
"You do not think," asked Phelps, "that he had any
murderous intention? The knife was only meant as a
tool."
"It may be so," answered Holmes, shrugging his
shoulders. "I can only say for certain that Mr.
Joseph Harrison is a gentleman to whose mercy I should
be extremely unwilling to trust."
Adventure XI
The Final Problem
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to
write these the last words in which I shall ever
record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr.
Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent
and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion,
I have endeavored to give some account of my strange
experiences in his company from the chance which first
brought us together at the period of the "Study in
Scarlet," up to the time of his interference in the
matter of the "Naval Treaty"--an interference which
had the unquestionable effect of preventing a serious
international complication. It was my intention to
have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that
event which has created a void in my life which the
lapse of two years has done little to fill. My hand
has been forced, however, by the recent letters in
which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his
brother, and I have no choice but to lay the facts
before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone
know the absolute truth of the matter, and I am
satisfied that the time has come when no good purpose
is to be served by its suppression. As far as I know,
there have been only three accounts in the public
press: that in the Journal de Geneve on May 6th,
1891, the Reuter's despatch in the English papers on
May 7th, and finally the recent letter to which I have
alluded. Of these the first and second were extremely
condensed, while the last is, as I shall now show, an
absolute perversion of the facts. It lies with me to
tell for the first time what really took place between
Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my
subsequent start in private practice, the very
intimate relations which had existed between Holmes
and myself became to some extent modified. He still
came to me from time to time when he desired a
companion in his investigation, but these occasions
grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the
year 1890 there were only three cases of which I
retain any record. During the winter of that year and
the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers that he
had been engaged by the French government upon a
matter of supreme importance, and I received two notes
from Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes, from
which I gathered that his stay in France was likely to
be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore,
that I saw him walk into my consulting-room upon the
evening of April 24th. It struck me that he was
looking even paler and thinner than usual.
"Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely,"
he remarked, in answer to my look rather than to my
words; "I have been a little pressed of late. Have
you any objection to my closing your shutters?"
The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the
table at which I had been reading. Holmes edged his
way round the wall and flinging the shutters together,
he bolted them securely.
"You are afraid of something?" I asked.
"Well, I am."
"Of what?"
"Of air-guns."
"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"
"I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to
understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At
the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to
refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.
Might I trouble you for a match?" He drew in the
smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence
was grateful to him.
"I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and
I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to
allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling
over your back garden wall."
"But what does it all mean?" I asked.
He held out his hand, and I saw in the light of the
lamp that two of his knuckles were burst and bleeding.
"It is not an airy nothing, you see," said he,
smiling. "On the contrary, it is solid enough for a
man to break his hand over. Is Mrs. Watson in?"
"She is away upon a visit."
"Indeed! You are alone?"
"Quite."
"Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that
you should come away with me for a week to the
Continent."
"Where?"
"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me."
There was something very strange in all this. It was
not Holmes's nature to take an aimless holiday, and
something about his pale, worn face told me that his
nerves were at their highest tension. He saw the
question in my eyes, and, putting his finger-tips
together and his elbows upon his knees, he explained
the situation.
"You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?"
said he.
"Never."
"Aye, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing!"
he cried. "The man pervades London, and no one has
heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in
the records of crime. I tell you, Watson, in all
seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could
free society of him, I should feel that my own career
had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to
turn to some more placid line in life. Between
ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of
assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to
the French republic, have left me in such a position
that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion
which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my
attention upon my chemical researches. But I could
not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair,
if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty
were walking the streets of London unchallenged."
"What has he done, then?"
"His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a
man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by
nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the
age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the
Binomial Theorem, which has had a European vogue. On
the strength of it he won the Mathematical Chair at
one of our smaller universities, and had, to all
appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But
the man had hereditary tendencies of the most
diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood,
which, instead of being modified, was increased and
rendered infinitely more dangerous by his
extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumors gathered
round him in the university town, and eventually he
was compelled to resign his chair and to come down to
London, where he set up as an army coach. So much is
known to the world, but what I am telling you now is
what I have myself discovered.
"As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows
the higher criminal world of London so well as I do.
For years past I have continually been conscious of
some power behind the malefactor, some deep organizing
power which forever stands in the way of the law, and
throws its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again
in cases of the most varying sorts--forgery cases,
robberies, murders--I have felt the presence of this
force, and I have deduced its action in many of those
undiscovered crimes in which I have not been
personally consulted. For years I have endeavored to
break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last
the time came when I seized my thread and followed it,
until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to
ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.
"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the
organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that
is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a
philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of
the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in
the center of its web, but that web has a thousand
radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of
them. He does little himself. He only plans. But
his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is
there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we
will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be
removed--the word is passed to the Professor, the
matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be
caught. In that case money is found for his bail or
his defence. But the central power which uses the
agent is never caught--never so much as suspected.
This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and
which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and
breaking up.
"But the Professor was fenced round with safeguards so
cunningly devised that, do what I would, it seemed
impossible to get evidence which would convict in a
court of law. You know my powers, my dear Watson, and
yet at the end of three months I was forced to confess
that I had at last met an antagonist who was my
intellectual equal. My horror at his crimes was lost
in my admiration at his skill. But at last he made a
trip--only a little, little trip--but it was more than
he could afford when I was so close upon him. I had
my chance, and, starting from that point, I have woven
my net round him until now it is all ready to close.
In three days--that is to say, on Monday next--matters
will be ripe, and the Professor, with all the
principal members of his gang, will be in the hands of
the police. Then will come the greatest criminal
trial of the century, the clearing up of over forty
mysteries, and the rope for all of them; but if we
move at all prematurely, you understand, they may slip
out of our hands even at the last moment.
"Now, if I could have done this without the knowledge
of Professor Moriarty, all would have been well. But
he was too wily for that. He saw every step which I
took to draw my toils round him. Again and again he
strove to break away, but I as often headed him off.
I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed account of
that silent contest could be written, it would take
its place as the most brilliant bit of
thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection.
Never have I risen to such a height, and never have I
been so hard pressed by an opponent. He cut deep, and
yet I just undercut him. This morning the last steps
were taken, and three days only were wanted to
complete the business. I was sitting in my room
thinking the matter over, when the door opened and
Professor Moriarty stood before me.
"My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must
confess to a start when I saw the very man who had
been so much in my thoughts standing there on my
threshhold. His appearance was quite familiar to me.
He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out
in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken
in his head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and
ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor
in his features. His shoulders are rounded from much
study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever
slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously
reptilian fashion. He peered at me with great
curiosity in his puckered eyes.
"'You have less frontal development than I should have
expected,' said he, at last. 'It is a dangerous habit
to finger loaded firearms in the pocket of one's
dressing-gown.'
"The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly
recognized the extreme personal danger in which I lay.
The only conceivable escape for him lay in silencing
my tongue. In an instant I had slipped the revolver
from the drawer into my pocket, and was covering him
through the cloth. At his remark I drew the weapon
out and laid it cocked upon the table. He still
smiled and blinked, but there was something about his
eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there.
"'You evidently don't know me,' said he.
"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'I think it is fairly
evident that I do. Pray take a chair. I can spare
you five minutes if you have anything to say.'
"'All that I have to say has already crossed your
mind,' said he.
"'Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,' I
replied.
"'You stand fast?'
"'Absolutely.'
"He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the
pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a
memorandum-book in which he had scribbled some dates.
"'You crossed my path on the 4th of January,' said
he. 'On the 23d you incommoded me; by the middle of
February I was seriously inconvenienced by you; at the
end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans;
and now, at the close of April, I find myself placed
in such a position through your continual persecution
that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty.
The situation is becoming an impossible one.'
"'Have you any suggestion to make?' I asked.
"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his
face about. 'You really must, you know.'
"'After Monday,' said I.
"'Tut, tut,' said he. 'I am quite sure that a man of
your intelligence will see that there can be but one
outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you
should withdraw. You have worked things in such a
fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been
an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which
you have grappled with this affair, and I say,
unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be
forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir,
but I assure you that it really would.'
"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.
"'That is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable
destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an
individual, but of a mighty organization, the full
extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have
been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr.
Holmes, or be trodden under foot.'
"'I am afraid,' said I, rising, 'that in the pleasure
of this conversation I am neglecting business of
importance which awaits me elsewhere.'
"He rose also and looked at me in silence, shaking his
head sadly.
"'Well, well,' said he, at last. 'It seems a pity,
but I have done what I could. I know every move of
your game. You can do nothing before Monday. It has
been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes. You hope
to place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never
stand in the dock. You hope to beat me. I tell you
that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough
to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I
shall do as much to you.'
"'You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty,'
said I. 'Let me pay you one in return when I say that
if I were assured of the former eventuality I would,
in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the
latter.'
"'I can promise you the one, but not the other,' he
snarled, and so turned his rounded back upon me, and
went peering and blinking out of the room.
"That was my singular interview with Professor
Moriarty. I confess that it left an unpleasant effect
upon my mind. His soft, precise fashion of speech
leaves a conviction of sincerity which a mere bully
could not produce. Of course, you will say: 'Why not
take police precautions against him?' the reason is
that I am well convinced that it is from his agents
the blow will fall. I have the best proofs that it
would be so."
"You have already been assaulted?"
"My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not a man who
lets the grass grow under his feet. I went out about
mid-day to transact some business in Oxford Street.
As I passed the corner which leads from Bentinck
Street on to the Welbeck Street crossing a two-horse
van furiously driven whizzed round and was on me like
a flash. I sprang for the foot-path and saved myself
by the fraction of a second. The van dashed round by
Marylebone Lane and was gone in an instant. I kept to
the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down
Vere Street a brick came down from the roof of one of
the houses, and was shattered to fragments at my feet.
I called the police and had the place examined. There
were slates and bricks piled up on the roof
preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me
believe that the wind had toppled over one of these.
Of course I knew better, but I could prove nothing. I
took a cab after that and reached my brother's rooms
in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have come
round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough
with a bludgeon. I knocked him down, and the police
have him in custody; but I can tell you with the most
absolute confidence that no possible connection will
ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front
teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring
mathematical coach, who is, I dare say, working out
problems upon a black-board ten miles away. You will
not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your
rooms was to close your shutters, and that I have been
compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by
some less conspicuous exit than the front door."
I had often admired my friend's courage, but never
more than now, as he sat quietly checking off a series
of incidents which must have combined to make up a day
of horror.
"You will spend the night here?" I said.
"No, my friend, you might find me a dangerous guest.
I have my plans laid, and all will be well. Matters
have gone so far now that they can move without my
help as far as the arrest goes, though my presence is
necessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore,
that I cannot do better than get away for the few days
which remain before the police are at liberty to act.
It would be a great pleasure to me, therefore, if you
could come on to the Continent with me."
"The practice is quiet," said I, "and I have an
accommodating neighbor. I should be glad to come."
"And to start to-morrow morning?"
"If necessary."
"Oh yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your
instructions, and I beg, my dear Watson, that you will
obey them to the letter, for you are now playing a
double-handed game with me against the cleverest rogue
and the most powerful syndicate of criminals in
Europe. Now listen! You will dispatch whatever
luggage you intend to take by a trusty messenger
unaddressed to Victoria to-night. In the morning you
will send for a hansom, desiring your man to take
neither the first nor the second which may present
itself. Into this hansom you will jump, and you will
drive to the Strand end of the Lowther Arcade,
handing the address to the cabman upon a slip of
paper, with a request that he will not throw it away.
Have your fare ready, and the instant that your cab
stops, dash through the Arcade, timing yourself to
reach the other side at a quarter-past nine. You will
find a small brougham waiting close to the curb,
driven by a fellow with a heavy black cloak tipped at
the collar with red. Into this you will step, and you
will reach Victoria in time for the Continental
express."
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